Career Advice: Strikeforce ‘Houston’ Edition

Aug 24, 2010

Chad Griggs vs. Bobby Lashley: Dave Mandel |
Sherdog.com

Strikeforce’s event Saturday in Houston saw breakout performances
from “Jacare,” “Feijao” and even the spectacularly sideburned
Chad
Griggs, but it was a night that will be remembered for the
jaw-dropping failure of the fighters Strikeforce was pinning hopes
on.

All is not lost, however, for the promotion’s would-be stars.
They’re just a few months’ worth of tinkering and therapy away from
developing as hoped. In an attempt to speed the process along, here
is what the night’s less than lucky participants need to work on or
flat-out ditch altogether.

King for a Day, Jester for a
Lifetime

There isn’t a sane man or woman alive who would argue against the
notion that Muhammed
Lawal has the talent to become a truly special mixed martial
artist. However, talent alone doesn’t cut it in a sport full of
supposedly talented athletes making the fistic equivalent of
minimum wage.

It was obvious during Lawal’s doomed fight with Cavalcante that he
didn’t believe there was any way he could lose. Between the
reckless defensive stance, telegraphed body punches and conspicuous
absence of any chain wrestling, “King Mo” seemed certain that
talent alone would win the day. Instead, he got his first career
loss.

The only way Lawal will ever fulfill the potential he squandered
Saturday night is by dropping the schtick and getting serious about
fighting. That means no more emulating professional boxers he has
no chance of ever approximating and a lot more time spent drilling
the fundamentals of fighting he left by the wayside.

Time for Lashley to Get Serious or Move
On

To hear Bobby
Lashley talk about his fighting career is to understand the
sort of schizophrenia professional wrestling relies upon to sustain
its narratives. One moment Lashley says he wants to work his way up
the ladder the right way and the next moment he is demanding a
title fight while ducking Shane del
Rosario.

Clearly, this is a man who needs to embrace the fact that he’s a
neophyte to MMA being handed the rare opportunity to develop at a
normal pace. In other words, keep your head down and get some wins
before the name Fedor
Emelianenko enters your regular vernacular. Hopefully, a loss
to the unheralded Chad Griggs has jammed some sense into his brain
because he is clearly a tremendous athlete.

However, unless Lashley starts working on his cardio and making
alterations to a physique ill-suited to MMA, all his athleticism
will be for naught. This is after all a former 211-pound wrestler
who put on a mountain of muscle purely for the WWE. Either he
starts reconsidering his career options or takes the time necessary
to become an actual mixed martial artist rather than an easy
sideshow attraction.

Cheap Shots & Quick Thoughts

• Tim
Kennedy would do well learning how to avoid an overhand right
and cut off angles. For nearly every minute of the full five
rounds, Ronaldo
"Jacare" Souza was winning based on his ability to move away
from Kennedy’s strikes while repeatedly landing his right with
serious power.

• Assuming hypnotherapy is out of the question, the least Jorge Gurgel
could do for himself is cut to featherweight and never let referee
Kerry Hatley get within 100 feet of any of his fights. I won’t
belabor his strategic blunders because it’s becoming more and more
obvious that his reconstructed knees make scoring takedowns
borderline impossible.

• There was no bigger loser Saturday night than Jon Schorle who
remains the undisputed worst referee in the game today. The only
solution I see is forced exile, preferably to an island with an
unusually high percentage of predatory creatures.

• Invisalign continues to lose based on their failure to make
Frank
Shamrock a pitchman. Is there a more obvious unfulfilled
pairing in advertising today?

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